Throw pillows are a cute bunch. They spruce up bland or battered couches, sofas or beds, and are cuddly to boot. They can also be made fresh from scratch or recycled from some other discarded fabric. And whatever your skill level, they are easy to sew. All you need are basic sewing tools, creativity and lots of passion. Go ahead and try your hand at making one or a dozen with these design ideas.

1. Retire tired pillow cases and make new ones from felt! Embellish with butterfly or flower cutouts in various but complementary colors and stitch them up. Line the pillow case with small cutouts or cluster together small and large cutouts in the center.

2. Got burlap? Give them new a lease in life and transform them into art. Make flowers out of discarded colorful fabrics and stitch them into the pillow cases for a rustic but sweet look.

3. Don't sweat out old sweaters. If you can't bear the thought of parting with your sheep wool sweater, cut it up for throw pillows of various sizes. You will have another set of different designs but of the same theme.

4. Stencil lyrics of love or your favorite quotes on a solid and light-colored fabric. These will make great handmade gifts if you are not the verbal type. The possibilities are endless, and you will only be limited by how broad your knowledge in poetry.

5. Go floral again but super-size it! Take out one long strip of fabric and make one giant floral ruffle out of it. Works well if you are making the most out of unused fabric which you couldn't sew into something else. Do the same with other scraps of cloth, repeat the same motif, and pretty soon you will have a bunch of them for an attention-getting sofa.

6. Mix and match scraps of cloth into one striped pillow. You need not stick to one color palette, but it helps if you can put together stripes that don't fight with each other!

7. Not in the mood to sew? Make colorful rosettes and revamp worn pillows to take them out of retirement.